I was planning on a big (in terms of volume) declutter 2 weeks ago, but the friend who would have collected me & my stuff had been chopping down trees helping clear the ground for a musical weekend & injured his back. ps. He's a recently retired engineer who has done a lot of outdoor work in his working & retired life, not an enthusiastic bloke wanting to help, & still needs treatment.

My stuff is a collection of large gift boxes & boot/photocopy-paper boxes covered with gift paper + an even larger box covered in pink material (perfect for a little girl to store her treasures!)

Said boxes contained stuff that has gone to Craft friends & charity shops. The pink box was almost full of my collection of vintage doilies (I only kept one) & went to a friend who sells vintage stuff at an Antique & Collectable fair - she recently sold all her large white damask table clothes to a Wedding business!

The surviving Willow Pattern doiley is a wonderful example of perfect stitching. I get complimented by friends on my small stitches, but they are uneven, ie. tiny stitches are surrounded/overwhelmed by larger ones. The doiley is a very fine linen (not handkerchief linen) & every stitch was over one thread which I only realised when I scanned it to show a distant friend.

(Embroidery Linen come in various thread “counts” which are simply an indication of the number of threads per inch in either direction. A low count Embroidery Linen would be a 20 count linen. High count is a little more difficult to define with exact numbers however in general, a 36 or a 40-count Embroidery Linen for counted handwork is considered fairly high count. A 50-count linen would be suitable for very fine work as the counted stitches are worked over one thread of fabric - now I know!) She must have had very good light - & eyes. I could mark an inch with pins count it - I do have a good light - but my eyes say NO!!